"And Zero at the Bone"

7 May 2025: Every time I come across these neighbors--every time, no matter the size--Dickinson's last line comes to mind.

Rescue mission...

 11 August 2020: Rescued just now from a slightly confused Wesley: the tiniest little toad I've ever seen that somehow got in the house. After a bit of me pleading with it, "Why won't you let me help you?", it is back outside. And no, it was too shy and (literally) jumpy to pose for better pics.

Best craigslist ad ever?

16 February 2014: This evening, with Bing and Wes sleeping on the bed near me, I read this post, in which the current owner of a dog talks to the people who abandoned her (in a neglected and abused state) dog three years ago.

I don't know much about owning a dog or the debates over pit-bulls. Here's what I do know--and what this post affirms in such a lovely way: the animals that some people throw away, animals like this dog (and like Bing and Wes), can change our lives in ways we never anticipate. We don't know how long we'll have them in our lives, but every day (even the hard ones) is a blessing.

Almost makes me want to move to Alaska...

An eagle, some cats, and a fox, just hanging out. No big deal.

Ten years old today...

...and looking good!

A man and his duck

This brings back memories of my dear late ducks, Fred and Tad, who were very good at following me around. Pretty cute stuff. And, uh, who knew you could "train ducks for competitions?"

That time of year...

Every July I have to do one of my least-favorite tasks: take the boys to the vet for their annual check-up and shots. In the past, this wasn't a task that bothered me. But that was before I got Wesley. Those of you who know Wesley might be shocked to hear this, but he is absolutely horrible at the vet. He's so bad that they've made a note of it in his file. Hilariously, they call him "vocal," which is a pretty great euphemism for the snarling, hissing, and growling he does from just about every second he's in there. (It's not as bad as one of my sister Erin's cats, who got the dreaded designation "Biter" in his file.)

It's so strange because Wesley is, in his home environment, absolutely the sweetest, most loving, friendly cat you'll ever meet. He's downright dog-like in his demeanor. He even seems to like dogs who visit. All of that goes out the window at the vet, though. I always try to assure the staff that "his bark is worse than his bite," and I do believe that's true--he's never actually bitten or scratched anyone or even tried to, but you can tell they aren't taking my word for it. Heck, I wouldn't if I were in their shoes.

So every year, I stand there, embarrassed and apologetic for bringing in this nasty beast. It's not fun, despite their reassurance that they deal with much worse.

And how about Bing? How does he handle it? Well, compared to Wes, he's an angel. In fact, if he does any growling or hissing, I think it's just because Wes gets him so scared. Today, poor Bing just sat on the exam table waiting, but I could feel him shaking in fear. The doctor even said, while listening to his heart beat, "You may be quiet, but your heart is racing."

Thankfully, the vet visits are always pretty short--in and out in about 40 minutes or less--because it's not an awful time for me. I know they are terrified and feel lost and uncertain and there's nothing I can do to really reassure them. Even when they cower against me for comfort or protection, that only makes me feel worse. Last year, Wes took a flying leap from the exam table, across the room, and onto my shoulder. It was impressive and sweet, but majorly guilt-inducing.

As soon as we get home, though, they snap right back to normal. It's actually quite sweet: as soon as I put the evil boxes (the cat carriers) away, the boys walk around like they are so freakin' happy and grateful to be home. You can practically hear them saying, "Yeah! My house! We're back! I love it here!"

The wonderful thing about certain animals, especially those not gifted with a whole lot of intelligence (like my dear Wesley) is that they seem to very quickly forget just who it was that brought them to the vet. He runs to me for comfort and protection and as soon as we get home, he's all over me with a story to tell. My loose translation: "You wouldn't believe what I've just been through! But I am so happy to be home with you, oh person I love so very much!"

If this is what it's like to take a little kid to the doctor, my friends who are parents have even more of my undying respect!


Bing, post-vet visit, looking out an upstairs window.


Wes, in my lap, post-vet visit.

Veteran's Day Links

Just in time for Veteran's Day, take a look at "Ian Fisher, American Soldier," a photo essay capturing 27 months in the life of a young serviceman.

After that, you know you'll want to check out this collection of soldiers' dogs welcoming their owners home from overseas. (I've linked to one of them back in October 2008).

My kind of tax break...

Up to a $3500 tax break for pet owners? A great idea, especially for those who take in "recession" dogs and cats, which I've previously blogged about here.

Wildlife at the new house...

A couple of weekends ago, I was outside working in the yard a bit when I noticed Bing and Wesley transfixed by something...



I wasn't sure what to expect--I knew it had to be something small (since I couldn't see it from where I was) but not too small since they don't pay attention to really little things outside.

Well, here it was...


That's a pretty big mantis, right?


I put the watering can next to her so you could get an idea of her size. (I think it's a girl...don't know why...I think it's because in my mind, all the boy-mantises have had their heads removed by their mates. I know that's not accurate, but oh well.)


Check out Bing and Wes fighting a bit over the best viewing position.

Anyway, the preying mantis has made a few more appearances, although I haven't seen her in a week. I hope she comes back, though, as last weekend I saw her grab one of these sucker and eat it!


Take that, stink bug!

New house: photo shoot and a backyard visitor

It's been very busy here around here lately, with family visiting from out of town and prep work for Monday (first day of classes). But I do have some photos to share. My brother Christian, my niece Kelsie, and my nephew Aidan got here last Saturday. Then Erin and Eric came for a visit and cookout on Sunday. One of Erin's birthday gifts to me was a really pretty wooden frame that she said I should put a picture of me and the house in. That, of course, required a photo shoot. So here you go...


The classic "It's All Mine!" pose.

Thumbs up, baby!

Okay...I was just getting silly here.

I really like this one.

So those are some views of the front yard. This evening, though, I had reason to get some film of the backyard (or at least the wooded area behind my backyard). On Sunday, we saw two deer in the trees, but I wasn't able to get my camera. Today, though, I was luckier.

The dog and the duck...

This made me smile and reminded me of dear, departed Fred the duck, and his rabbit friend, Todd, who used to live in our backyard.

Puppies!

A blog shout-out to my friend Kate, who along with her roommate, is fostering two puppies. Check them out here--and pass along the word to anyone in the DC-metro area who might have a good home for Alice and Alba.

Five quick funny links...

If you've had a long day like I have, you might appreciate any one of these links. Today (as always) I am especially grateful to the Daily Dish, which has supplied almost all of them.

1) The Ten Funniest Freudian Slips in the History of TV. Number one is especially awesome because it makes no sense... (And I love Shepherd Smith...)

2) Porter the dog plays a keyboard and "sings" along. Really funny, but be glad he's not your neighbor's dog.

3) Funniest fact-checking joke you'll read all month. And I'm willing to bet you on that one.

4) How do faculty members handle naked locker-room encounters with their students? My answer: avoid them altogether!

5) And straight from Japan, a couple of clips featuring Maru the cat. Seriously--you've got to watch both clips.

Still more link dumping: Publishing Edition

1) What to make of this news from the University of Michigan Press? It will "shift its scholarly publishing from being primarily a traditional print operation to one that is primarily digital." As someone who one day hopes to publish a book through a university press, I like anything that makes that process easier. A significant passage:

Because digital publishing is so much less expensive -- with savings both in printing and distribution -- the press expects to be able to publish more books, and to distribute them electronically to a much broader audience. Michigan officials said that they don't plan to cut the budget of the press -- but to devote resources to peer review and other costs of publishing that won't change with the new model. Significantly, they said, the press would no longer have to reject books deemed worthy from a scholarly perspective, but viewed as unable to sell.

2) Speaking of academic writing, there were lots of sessions at this past 4Cs that I wish I had attended, but after reading this piece at Insiderhighered.com, I am really regretting missing “Empty Rhetoric and Academic Bullshit: Strategies for Composition’s Self-Representation in National Arenas.”

Since my 4Cs presentation was on teaching working-class students and our whole panel, in fact, was about shifting classroom demographics, this section really caught my eye:

Bauerlein started by noting that many of the reports issued by the composition group and panels at the meeting deal with issues of race, class, gender and so forth, and he said that this would make no sense to the “man in the street.” Such a person would say “it’s just writing” and wonder why “politically charged subjects” capture such attention.

While Bauerlein is critical of what he sees as a political one-sidedness on humanities faculties, he was careful to say that he was not arguing that the man in the street was “right” and that in fact this man might have a “simplistic” view of teaching writing. But Bauerlein said that the gap between the public understanding of what composition is about and the discipline’s understanding of itself is “not healthy for anyone.”

A key source of this problem, Bauerlein said, is the “publish or perish” system of academic advancement. The “extraordinary burden” on scholars in composition and rhetoric to come up with something new to say, he said, results in work becoming more specialized, with “every narrower niches,” language that can only be understood by other experts, and a “progressive departure from popular understandings” of what writing is about.

3) Finally, a bit about my own current attempts to make further contributions to the over-crowded, uber-competitive world of academic publishing.: Some of you might remember that I am working on project on the idea of pet-keeping (and domesticity) in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat." One of my main goals for this summer is to take that paper from conference-length to article-length and send it out. Anyway, I'll be doing lots more research on the history of pet-keeping and that's why this blog post caught my eye: See One of the World's Oldest Pet Portraits.

The elephant's friend...

If you are an animal lover, you so need to watch this video from yesterday's Sunday Morning.

"My dogs greeting me after 14 months in Iraq"

Via Andrew Sullivan: watch this clip and just try not to get choked up. And God bless the men and women serving in the military--and the pets waiting for them to come home.

"The other victims of foreclosure"

A depressing story from CBS's early show--people turning their pets over to shelters after they lose their homes. I remember hearing Ben Stein talk about this a couple of months ago on Sunday Morning, except unlike this story's headline, he referred to the pets as the truly innocent victims of this whole mess (with the exception, I am sure, of the kids whose parents took out these mortgages they couldn't afford). Here's the video of that comment. I really love his ideas about tax breaks and federal aid for shelters and people who adopt shelter pets--that's something I can stomach a lot more than government (translation: taxpayer) bail-outs for irresponsibility.

Want to help? You can always donate to two of my favorite charities: the ASPCA or the Humane Society. In fact, here's another little plug: if you are stuck for an idea for a birthday gift (or any gift) for an animal lover, consider making a donation in honor of that person at the ASPCA. You can also do it in memory of a loved one (human or animal). It's a lovely gesture that I've made a few times for friends and family, and they always appreciate it, certainly more than any old something you can find at a store and throw in the mail.

Eaglecam

Last Friday I had a training session for the Civility Response Team, an organization on campus that I've just joined. The session was held at the National Conservation Training Center (NCTC), a fish and wildlife training center (and government facility) on the outskirts of Shepherdstown. The NCTC is really something--an amazing facility with gorgeous grounds, beautiful buildings--it's just a great place to be.

On our way out when the all-day training session was done (and is there any phrase that evokes less fun than "all-day training session"?), we were walking to our cars, and Alan, one of my favorite people from my department, pointed out the eagles' nest at the NCTC. He explained that there is even an Eaglecam set up so you can watch the eagles and the eaglets online. My interest was piqued, so I checked out the website and now I am hooked!

This year there are three eaglets in the nest, and you can read all about them (and previous years' efforts) here. There is also a link to a blog for eagle-watchers, who seem to be an amazingly involved community of devotees. Of course, the day (Saturday) I discovered the blog and the eaglecam was also the day that severe thunderstorms roared through the area. This is, of course, a danger for these little birds and people were on edge most of the day. (Today was a similar day, with a tornado warning in the area--honestly, I thought my car was about to washed away at one point!) Anyway, the babies survived Saturday's storms.

Today one of the eaglets fledged (left the nest) for the first time. The bloggers went wild with excitement. Bad timing, though, considering the weather. As of this point, the two remaining babies seem fine (wet, but fine) and there is no sign of the parents or the baby who flew off--not that that is necessarily a sign of bad news.

Anyway, if you are so inclined, check out the Eaglecam! Warning: it's kind of addictive.

Blogging catch-up day...

So I've been swamped since I've been back from 4Cs. Actually, I've been swamped since the week before Spring Break. Now, though, with both my spring conferences behind me, my annual report and merit pay application done, and a big batch of grading completed (and that small matter of a family member's health crisis being more or less resolved!), I can catch my breath and reward myself a bit by doing some blogging. I've got tons of links I've been saving up to post, so prepare yourself, folks. I've got a lot of work to get done today, but I'm working short blogging breaks into my schedule. Bring on the randomness.

Let's start with Japanese game shows--like shooting fish in a barrel, right? Here's a link to video from a show whose point seems to be stacking as many treats on your dog as possible before they fall off or he eats them. Now, you know I am a cat person, but part of the reason I don't think I'll be a dog owner anytime soon is exemplified in this clip: I just couldn't take the love! I mean, those darn dogs are DROOLING as hundreds of treats are stacked on them, yet they don't break because they don't want to disappoint their owners. Dogs are like that--they would do anything for their humans. As a pet owner, I couldn't take that kind of pressure--I just can't meet those expectations. I have a hard enough time with the dog-like Wesley. He thinks I am the bomb, which usually makes me feel awesome, but oftentimes makes me feel unworthy. Hmmm...perhaps this says more about me than about dogs. Anyway, as the Japanese might say, please to enjoy the game show. Later on, chimps and bananas show up!